Episode 512 - 4 Chefs Compete
The twelfth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on April 23, 2009. On that episode, the final four had to correctly guess Ramsay’s dish by taste, the dinner service featured an engagement, and gender lines were drawn once again during elimination. Intro Before leaving upstairs, Ramsay told Ben to prove that he made the right decision by not eliminating him. Back in the dorms, Ben admitted to the other chefs that the comment Ramsay said to him were demoralizing, but he and Danny knew that Andrea was on her last chance as well. Paula and Andrea converse, with Paula telling Andrea that she needed to fight back after her poor performance, and Andrea acknowledged. Individual challenge The next morning, the final four made their way to the red kitchen and saw Ramsay with some dishes he cooked himself. Ramsay explained that since being here, the chefs have understood speed, timing, and communication, and told the next lesson would be about accuracy. Showing the chefs three dishes, Ramsay offered them to taste, and all of them loved it. As almost everyone, except Danny, loved the Italian fish stew dish, Ramsay announced the next challenge would be the Taste It Now Make It Challenge. All four of them had to recreate Ramsay’s fish dish, using taste alone, and the chef who would be the closest to the original would be the winner. Having 30 minutes to recreate the dish, the chefs got to work and each of them had different ideas on what they thought the ingredients were. Danny decided to use the red snapper as his fish protein, while the rest decided to use halibut. Andrea used bay scallops for her dish, while the rest used sea scallops. Paula used water for her stock, while the rest used fish stock. Finally, Danny and Paula used white wine in their dish, Andrea used Sambuca, and Ben used peradone. Ben tried to hide his wine from the rest of the chefs, but Ramsay saw through his plan and called him a selfish bastard as the wine was community property. Eventually, all the chefs got their dishes cooked and plated in time. All of them presented their dishes and Ramsay praised all of them for their flavor and taste. Ramsay revealed that he used red snapper for his dish, which put Danny in the lead, but Ben was the only one to use the peradone in his dish. Andrea automatically lost as she missed out on those two ingredients along with the scallops, and Ben lost as well as he used too much saffron on his dish, leaving only Danny and Paula for final deliberation. After tasting their dishes again, Ramsay noted that they were very close to his own dish, but Danny was declared the winner as he used fish stock instead of water, like Paula did. Reward Danny and Ramsay flew in biplanes. On their way to the airfield, Ramsay noted that Danny had matured a lot since the beginning of the competition, and had gotten stronger in the last 3-4 weeks. Danny said it was because he was determined to do well in the culinary industry. Punishment Ben, Andrea, and Paula had to work with Jean-Philippe in polishing the crystal ware, shampooing the carpets, and prepping for that night’s service. During the punishment, Andrea stated that she felt drained due to the late nights and early mornings, even stating that she missed her family, friends, and personal life. Her negativity rubbed Ben and Paula the wrong way. Before service While prepping for service, Ben suggested doing something to speed up time, but Andrea snapped at him, and suggested they rebel and go home instead. Andrea's continuing poor attitude made Ben feel that she would be going home next, and Paula knew that Andrea's continuing stress would be better for her own performance. Danny returned to Hell’s Kitchen around that time and showed the chefs the photos he took with Ramsay. 25 minutes before the opening, the remaining chefs were getting the last bit of prep finished. While Danny was confident in his performance, Andrea was not, but still wanted to perform at her best. Then, Ramsay had the final four line up and revealed that he wanted them back up in the dorms to see something. They returned to the dorms to find cookware similar to the ones they used in Hell’s Kitchen, and they were excited about the gift. Returning downstairs, Ramsay remarked there was a good chef inside each of them, and wanted them to wipe the slate clean of any previous mistakes they committed in the past. Afterwards, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service Before they started cooking, Ramsay urged them to communicate as it would lead to a perfect service. Ben got the first ticket order mixed up, but he and Paula were able to send out their appetizers without any problems. They continued to push out appetizers in a great momentum, which made Ramsay impressed as it was their strongest start yet. Ben dropped spaghetti into a pot that was not boiling, leading Ramsay to believe he was trying to get ahead and panicking. 45 minutes into service, almost everybody in the dining room received their appetizers. Moving onto entrées, Andrea sent up perfect Wellingtons to the pass. Ben brought up a bland risotto and Ramsay accused him of switching off. Paula slowed down a bit on the fish station, causing Ramsay to order her to wake up. An hour and a half into service, the chefs continued to get both the appetizers and entrées out. Ramsay called out a plain salad for one vegetarian customer, but Ben added croutons to the dish, much to Ramsay’s frustration. However, Ben managed to make a correct one soon after. Back in the dining room, one of the diners approached Jean-Philippe to ask if he could help him propose to his girlfriend with a dessert. Jean-Philippe agreed and gave Ramsay the ring at the hot plate. Danny was unresponsive on the garnish station, which slowed down the momentum, but managed to send up a good order of carrot purée. Andrea continued to push her meat out much to her pleasure, and Ramsay urged all four of them to keep up the momentum. However, Ben became slow on the appetizer station, which slowed the momentum for a bit. Andrea's Wellingtons came out burned and had to tell a dismayed Ramsay about it. Two hours into dinner service, Jean-Philippe presented the engagement dessert to the couple, with the girlfriend happily accepting the proposal, and Ramsay personally congratulating the newly engaged couple. Afterwards, the chefs continued to push out their last tickets to the dining room. However, Andrea realized that she was short of two Wellingtons for the rest of the night, much to the others' dismay. Danny and Paula managed to make two new Wellingtons from scratch, but said they would need fifteen more minutes, causing Ramsay to tell Andrea that she fucked up their perfect service. Eventually, the chefs completed all their tickets. Post-mortem The four chefs were lined up, and Ramsay was disappointed that they were so close to a perfect service and that the last 10% had almost all of them switch off. This caused him to state that services were not how they were starting, but how they were finishing. After, Ramsay asked all of them to come up with one individual that should be up for elimination. Back in the dorms, Ben chose Andrea due to her inexperience in running a brigade and recent poor performances, but Andrea chose Ben due to his poor performance. Danny chose Andrea due to her miscounting the Wellingtons which slowed them down at the end, but Andrea argued that she thought she counted them all up. Then, Danny asked Andrea if she ever led a brigade before, and while she said she did, she hesitated when he asked for a number of people. However, Paula chose Ben due to his recent poor performances and his big ego, while arguing that she was not worse than Ben or Andrea when he brought up her mistakes. With the gender lines drawn between Ben and Andrea and nobody agreeing to a consensus, Danny knew that Ramsay would not be happy. Elimination Ramsay asked the team if they came to a consensus, but they all said they did not, much to Ramsay’s confusion. Andrea explained that it was between her and Ben, so Ramsay called both of them down. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay decided to eliminate Ben for his downward spiral, but praised him for his extraordinary attitude, effort, and energy. During his exit interview, Ben received a retrospective montage of his run. Before sending the final three back upstairs, Ramsay revealed he had a surprise for them, ending the episode on a cliffhanger. Ramsay gave no comment on Ben's elimination, and Ben did not receive the coat hanging and burning picture sequence. Category:Season 5 Category:Episodes